THE DEVONIAN LIMESTONE AT ST. GEORGE, QUEBEC 223 



objection that the long line of Onondaga outcrops in New York 

 borders too closely a land mass, and would provide the clearer, 

 off-shore sea which the fauna seems to require. And, moreover, it 

 would provide a pathway, all traces of which are now obliterated, 

 for the migration of Spirifer lucasensis. 



A paleogeographic map of North America during Onondaga 

 time is submitted with this report. It will be seen that the dis- 

 tribution of lands and seas is shown on a much more simple plan 



Fig. I. — Paleogeographic map of North America during Onondaga time, 

 areas represent seas. 



Shaded 



than in most maps representing the geography during this period. 

 SimpHcity, when compatible with the facts, is desirable in our 

 necessarily crude reconstructions of the continent. In this re- 

 spect the paleogeographic maps in Grabau's Text-Book of Ge- 

 ology are inferior to their predecessors, for their complicated 

 shore lines are apt to give students the idea that our knowledge of 

 paleogeography has reached that stage of perfection in which shore 

 lines can be plotted accurately and in detail. Such is not the case, 

 nor is it ever Ukely to be; so that for both scientific and pedagogical 



